Womens Water Polo

Pearson Lyverse
Acalanes Girls Varsity Water Polo
September 27, 2008

Fountain of Youth
Acalanes Lady Dons off to a tremendous and youthful start

At 9-3, the Acalanes Lady Dons water polo team is off to tremendous start. This powerful 2008 season started with an exciting sudden death, double overtime game against Northgate.
“We are doing much better than most of us had expected because we are a really young team.” said Senior Captain Anne Everett who is leading the team in scoring. Everett and two other Seniors start, with two sophomores, a junior and a freshman.
The Dons carried this excitement into the annual Acalanes Invitational Water Polo Tournament. On the first day of the tournament the Acalanes Women’s Water Polo team won both of their games, advancing to the semifinals. However, their second day was less successful. The Lady Dons wound up losing the third place match and came out of the tournament 3-2.
The Dons did not play at the level that they had hoped at the First Annual Acalanes-hosted tournament. Perhaps, the season that had had such a wonderful beginning would not live up to the hopes of the Lady Dons.
This Idea was quickly disproved when Acalanes defeated College park in a smashing 7-1 victory and later went 4-1 at the Roseville Woodcreek Invitational. The Acalanes Lady Dons defeated Lodi 6-2, Woodside High 10-1 and Oakdale 10-3. Everett had no fewer than 3 goals in each game, Welcomer, Sheehan, Burgin, Arsenal and Lanier also recorded goals and Ellie Stern recorded 10 saves in the Dons victory over the Lodi Flames.
The Dons carried their confidence and momentum from Friday into day two of the Tournament.
“ quote about Acalanes tournament and how their young talent helped the team do well in their first tournament” from someone BESIDES Anne Everett.
Unfortunately, game one of day two, the AHS girls Water Polo lost to the Sunnyside Wildcats, Anne Everett had two goals and Goalie, Stern, had 8 saves. This loss took away the Don’s wishes to win first place at Woodcreek. However the Sunnyside game did not affect the Lady Don’s spirit, they went on to crush Johansen-Modesto 5-1 in the following game.
“We kind of faltered a little bit (in the first game versus Sunnyside)” said senior Anne Everett. “And we really wanted to come back and show that we should have been in the championship game and that was our goal in the second game that day”.
“It’s the best that we have done in a tournament in a long time and we are all very excited!” Everett added. The young team was exhilarated and confident after coming out of their second successful tournament with an overall record of 9-3.
The Confidence that the Dons had built off of their success in the early season tournaments and games took a hit after Acalanes suffered a devastating loss to Los Lomas. The Dons battled the Knights hard all four quarters and the game went back-and-forth. The game was tied in the fourth quarter, thanks to a pair of goals by Everett, at 2-2. Goalie Ellie Stern had a spectacular fourth quarter save that was passed and quickly intercepted by Los Lomas, who launched the ball back at Stern, this time escaping her reach and giving the Knights a 3-2 lead. The Dons morale was not crushed by this play though, the y quickly rallied an attack on the Knights and __________ passed the ball to __________ who scored, what seemed to be the tying goal in the final minutes of the game. To the chagrin of the Lady Dons, the referee staff did not count the goal because the Don’s coach had called timeout seconds before the goal was scored. This heart-breaking call was not the most disappointing part of the Dons loss to Los Lomas; Acalanes had projected that a win over Los Lomas would sit the Dons in the fourth or fifth seed in the NCS playoffs. Now the Don’s “Just really need a big win” said Junior Ellie Stern. “I think we will definitely be in NCS still, we just need to do well in the Modesto States Tournament, so that we don’t end up playing Monte Vista first round at NCS this year.” Last year, the Dons were thoroughly smashed by Monte Vista 19-1. The Lady Dons admit that they must play well to get a favorable seed so for NCS. As for Monte Vista, The rather young Acalanes needs to focus on making the NCS playoffs and then getting several playoff games under their belt before they go up against the Goliath that is Monte Vista.

Will quote both coaches following the MIramonte game. (mr. Buchel and Miramonte’s coach)